1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses consistent with the present invention relate to enclosures for organizing, splicing, and interconnecting fibers in various applications such as broadband, distribution, and building entrance applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Throughout this disclosure, a fiber splice enclosure refers to an assembly for splitting cables into constituent fibers and vice-versa. The word ‘fiber’ does not limit the disclosure to optical fibers. In fact, ‘fiber’ may refer to a plurality of conductors such as copper wires, optical fibers, metallic conductors, etc. A single cable may include different types of conductors such as copper wires or optical fibers or combinations of both.
Existing fiber splice enclosures available today are designed with a specific set of entry and exit cable ports. An example of such a related art fiber splice enclosure is the LightLink™ LL-500 Optical Splicing & Distribution Enclosure commercially sold by AFL Telecommunication, Inc. These fiber splice enclosures can be mounted to walls or suitable building structures and are used to divide an input entry cable into constituent fibers for distribution to customers. The port locations for entry of the cable and exit of the fibers may be preconfigured or temporarily sealed with knockouts or plugs.
Current technology, however, does not provide means for changing cable port number, position, and geometry for such fiber optic enclosures to fit a dynamic installation environment. Installers are compelled to purchase fixed configuration boxes or settle for sub-optimal installation configurations.
Current technology does not provide a means for replacing the outer skin of the enclosure with out service interruption. In addition, the existing technology does not provide a means to change the door swing angle (left or right) in the field. With existing technology, the installer must make modification to the enclosure and/or add additional mounting hardware.
Existing technology also does not provide a means to field configure the fiber splice connector interconnect mounting bracket without considerable effort and time. Finally, existing technology fit/form factor is large and bulky in size and shape.